This book examines the concept of civility and the conditions of civil disagreement in politics and education. Although many assume that civility is merely polite behavior, it functions to aid rational discourse. Building on this basic assumption, the book offers multiple accounts of civility and its contribution to citizenship, deliberative…

It is possible to approach, but not to achieve, the goal of perfection. To the three traditional philosophical values of truth, goodness, and beauty it is appropriate to append the important values of wisdom, humanness, and grace. Among the resources available toward the perfection of behavior are ethics, morality, and mores. The first chapter of…

Many educators seem reluctant to instill in their pupils good habits such as honesty, respect, and truthfulness. This book emphasizes how teachers can create schools in which students practice and exhibit respect and responsibility. Many problems in schools, homes, and society at large, arise from a lack of good character. To develop moral…

This book presents the story of the Ojibwe, also called the Anishinaabe, Chippewa, or Ojibway people, who live in southern Canada and the north-central United States. Written for young people, the Ojibwe story combines history with cultural stories and an introduction to the Good Path--the values that form Ojibwe philosophy. Each chapter covers…

This book presents a comprehensive approach to values education and moral education. It draws on old and new approaches and methods to help young people grow up with clear values, good character, moral integrity, and the knowledge and skills to be good citizens. This comprehensive model utilizes traditional approaches for inculcating and modeling…

This collection of essays addresses the debate over moral education. The contributors deal with whether educators should influence children's value orientation through a direct program advocating restraint and higher moral standards, or whether educators should teach students to cope and adapt by providing a variety of alternatives from which the…

This book offers ideas to help parents teach positive values to their children. The book suggests ways to teach children to have the courage to tell the truth; to understand the value of hard work and persistence; and to make positive contributions to their community, their country, and their world. It includes four sections on helping children…

The essays in this book explore the balance between the communal and the individual aspects in the development of human beings and relates theories of education and learning to this development. In the introduction, Peter J. Sheehan offers a critical discussion of the ideas presented in the text. Part I contains two chapters on values and…

The nine essays in this book present perspectives on what is needed in character education from kindergarten to college. Two main themes run through the volume. The first is a consensus among the authors that fundamental moral standards must be passed along to the young and that educators at all levels bear the obligation to transmit these core…

The purpose of this book is to identify schooling goals and suggest what form of schooling is needed to achieve them. Although schools manage to care for children and give them a solid social, cultural, and intellectual grounding they also massively deprive children of intellectual and cultural stimulation and enormously distort children's…

This book explores the issues of democratic education and student responsibilities in the schools. There are three compelling reasons to engage students to have a direct experience of democracy as an integral part of their schooling: (1) students are most likely to understand and value democracy and develop the political skills required for…

The major premise of the three essays in this booklet is that moral education in the schools is and will become even more explicit and direct. Another premise is that only through education do people become moral; ethical behavior arises neither from psychological predetermination nor from instinct. New approaches to moral education are necessary…

Addressing the problems of increasing antisocial behavior, declining civility, and decaying morals, this book contains a collection of essays that consider the origins and the development of America's character, the factors that influence it, and the consequences for society of inadequate character development. Essays include the following: "The…